Guardian's Moonlight
by sthomason
Summary: North didn't worry about the lights at first. He put it down to a bad Easter and blamed Bunnymund...but they kept fading. Now, the Guardian's powers are disappearing as well and everything they have worked to protect is about to fall apart. Is Pitch back again? Or is the answer something even they never considered? Just where does a Guardian find strength?
1. Chapter 1

"What's happening?"

"Is it Pitch? Is he back?"

"What are we going to do?"

"Enough!" North boomed. The babble of voices died as the Guardians fell silent. North gazed around the room, at the globe that steadily dimmed as its tiny lights flickered out. It had started so slowly, he hadn't even noticed...and now he was afraid that maybe they'd left it too late.

"Alright," he continued. "You all know ve have big problem, yes?"

"You think?" Jack said. The boy's hood was pulled forwards over a face that was flushed with warmth.

"Vell, I call you here to find out vhat."

It was Bunnymund who broke the silence. "Ya mean ya don't know?" he asked. He sat across the table, slumped in his seat, ears drooping.

"Not a hint," North replied. "You have ideas?"

"Me? All I know is Easter was a flamin' disaster."

Sandy conjured a series of golden eggs as Jack turned to Bunny in surprise. "But I thought you said egg production was up?"

"It was! Three per child, global!"

Tooth smiled sadly. "Very impressive," she put in.

"Yes, yes," North added. "Very good effort!"

Bunny's ears pricked up a little at the praise. "For all the good it did," he said. "I dunno what went wrong! Seemed like none of the little nippers were happy. All they did was whinge and complain!"

North frowned. "But Easter should be hope, yes?"

"New beginnings, new life, new hope...none of it worked!"

"That very bad, and has started something. Ve lose the lights faster ever since."

"Just a minute, mate. You blamin' this on me?" Bunny's hand strayed threateningly to the boomerang strapped to his back.

"No, no, of course not!" North said. "Things are bad everywhere!"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, looking around the table. "You're having problems as w-I mean, things are going wrong for all of you?"

"Well..." Tooth hesitated as a cloud of tiny and unusually subdued fairies swarmed around her.

"Go on," North prompted.

"We're still collecting the teeth – even the European division hasn't fallen behind – and the gifts are working fine, but...it's just...you see...the memories are gone."

A horrified gasp ran through the circle of Guardians and Tooth buried her face in her hands. She had tried so hard! She couldn't understand what was going wrong!

"Gone?" North asked.

"Yes," she said. A tear slipped down her cheek, and the iridescence in her feathers dimmed a little more. "They're not there. I wish-I wish I knew what was happening!"

"Whoa, time out," Bunny said. "Let me get this straight. You aren't gettin' the memories. Which means ya can't help the little anklebiters when they need it."

Tooth nodded glumly.

"This is bad," North added. "Sandy, do you also have problem?"

The little golden man floated onto the table, sand trickling into pictures above his head. A sleeping child, surrounded by dancing dreams. Then suddenly, the dream was gone, and the roaring eyes of a Nightmare appeared.

"Pitch!" Jack cried, but Sandy shook his head.

"Well, if it's not Pitch," Bunny asked, "then who's making the Nightmares?"

Sandy pointed to the sleeping figure.

"The children?" Tooth asked. "Do you...you can't mean the children are making the Nightmares?"

Sandy nodded sadly and shrugged.

"Ah...this is very much worse than I fear," North said. "Is no wonder children do not believe."

Jack interrupted before the big man could go on. "Wait. What's happening to you?"

"Is hard to tell," North admitted. "There is still time before Christmas, but never has Naughty list been so long before. And letters, they change – now, children want more. Expect more. And yes, this is bad for Christmas. I feel it...in my belly." He slapped his hands to his rotund midriff to emphasis the words.

"So basically," Bunny said, "we're all stuffed."

"That is about the shape."

Sandy waved his arms impatiently, and a snowflake appeared in the air.

"That's right, you haven't been lookin' so chipper yourself, Frost," Bunny commented.

Tooth fluttered into the air a little. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Of course, Jack, if this is happening to us, what about you? You have so few believers anyway!"

Jack shrunk further back into his seat, uncharacteristically silent.

"Go on, Jack," North pressed.

"I-I'm a little different to you guys," the boy began. "I mean...you're all doing so well! Sure, stuffs mixed up, but it's not your fault. I-I can't get anything right. I...I'm sorry."

Tooth hovered a little higher at the sight of Jack's crystal white teeth. "It's okay, Jack," she said. "You can tell us."

Jack slowly stood to his feet and picked up his staff. The wood was different, somehow – plainer, as if the frost within it were melting away. Reluctantly, Jack wrapped his hands around the rod and touched it to the centre of the table. A dull blue light gleamed and clear black ice slowly crept across the surface. North winced.

"That is...good effort," he began, but Jack interrupted furiously.

"Good effort? That's the best I can manage! It's pathetic!" He slumped back into his seat. "I'm pathetic. I'm sorry, guys. I know...I know you trusted me. I let you down. Again."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Jack," Tooth said. "It's not your fault. Something's happened to all of us."

"But what?" the boy cried. "I thought we finished Pitch! Isn't this all supposed to be over now?"

"The kid's right," Bunny added. "Pitch Black is gone. So whaddaya think's going on?"

Sandy drifted over Jack's ice and pointed to a floating crescent moon of sand.

"Of course! Man-in-moon!" North agreed, looking up to see the silvery shape of the full moon through a glass canopy in the roof. "Manny!" he boomed. "Ve have big problem. Vhat can ve be doing?"

The rays of light falling through the window twisted and spun, throwing a shadowed silhouette on the table. It seemed to be a girl, with hair cascading over her shoulders and the soft outline of wings slowly opening.

"Who on the green earth is that?" Bunny asked.

"Do you think she can help?" Tooth added.

"I don't know," North replied.

Jack stood for a moment, looking at the shadow. His gaze drifted to the slick surface of ice covering the table. "What choice do we have? If the moon says she'll help, that's good enough for me." He looked up through the ceiling. "Where do we find her?"

The shadow spread and changed, until it had morphed into a profile that was only too familiar.

"Pitch!"


	2. Chapter 2

"I toldya it was Pitch," Bunny growled. The gaping black hole torn into the ground at his feet reeked of fear and darkness.

"Vell, this looks bad," North agreed.

Tooth's tiny fairies fluttered behind her, twittering nervously. "How long do you think he's been out?" It was more than a year ago now since Pitch had been sealed into the ground – trapped, they thought, forever. How had he broken free?

"What does that matter?" Jack asked.

Bunny looked at the boy with suspicious eyes. "Sure you're up for this, Frost?" The ice beneath Jack's feet looked as if it were slowly melting and the boy leant heavily on his staff. Whatever scheme Pitch had concocted, it was hitting Jack harder than any of them.

"Me? Speak for yourself, Fluffy." Tooth heard the familiar spirit and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright," North said, "this plan for attack. Bunny, Sandy, with me. Tooth and Jack, you bring up rear."

Bunny grinned as he reached for his boomerang. "Whaddhya waiting for, ya bunch of drongos? Let's go!"

The Guardians ran, flying down the black tunnels in a blaze of magic that banished the shadows. But nothing stood before them; no Nightmares or Fearlings; nothing but the empty darkness. Then, finally, they burst from the labyrinth of passageways into a looming cavern.

And in the furthest corner, huddled in a corner, cowered the fearsome Pitch Black.

"What in the green earth?" Bunny murmured. He held a boomerang aloft and poised to throw.

"Pitch," Jack spat.

"Wait!" Tooth whispered. "Do you see that?" The fairy was staring at Pitch with wide eyes. Something hovered in the air around him...a tiny light that gently glittered silver and gold in the darkness. It was dancing, always moving, never still; a wisp of laughter.

"Please, it doesn't have to be this way." The soft, mellow voice floated on air thickened by fear and despair. North closed his eyes when he heard the sound. It was music and light and joy. What was it doing in this place?

"Away!" Pitch gasped. "Away, get away from me!"

The light came closer again and just for a moment rested against one black-clad shoulder. Pitch flinched away as he had been burnt.

"C'mon, guys," Jack insisted. "What are we waiting for?"

"The light," Tooth said. "North, whatever happens I don't think we should lose the light."

North looked down at his companions; the six-foot rabbit and the golden man, tensed and waiting with weapons at the ready; and Tooth hovering by Jack. It was Jack's unexpected strength that had given them the advantage over Pitch in the past, but now the boy looked as though he were struggling to even stay upright.

In the seconds it took to assess the situation, Pitch looked up. His face contorted into a scowl as he rose suddenly to full height and dissolved into shadows.

"You dare come here?" his voice hissed in the darkness. The tiny light flickered, and suddenly it was gone, just a twinkling glow disappearing down a tunnel.

North flicked his sabres into his hands. "Jack, Tooth is right – don't let it get away!" And he ran towards the shadows, Bunny, Tooth and Sandy at his side.

"On it!" Jack gathered himself together, swung his staff and leapt into the air. Wind raced through the cave towards the gaping black mouth of the tunnel the light had vanished into. Up and up, through the narrow passage he flew. The light was always ahead, sometimes just around a corner, more often only a gleam in the distance. But always, always drawing further away.

"Hey! Stop!"

Suddenly, they burst out of the ground. The glow Jack followed faded in the daylight, and for a moment he hesitated. It fled higher through the trees, and with a gust of wind Jack leapt upwards after it.

"Wait!" Jack tightened his grip on his staff, summoning what power he still could. Higher and higher they raced. The light, though barely visible in the sun, was somehow growing; unfolding into a thousand glimmering gold points.

And then everything went wrong.

The wind that held him aloft faltered, almost imperceptibly, and Jack felt his control slip away. The ground was already so far away that the frozen pond beneath him looked like a silver coin. A fall, from this height, even for a Guardian...

Jack barely had time to consider the thought before the strength of the wind wavered again, faded, and failed altogether. Before he had time to fall, Jack reached for fragment of power within him and threw it out with a cry. Blue radiance shone from the staff in his hands, but the spark was weak and he knew it wouldn't be enough.

In the moment before he plummeted towards the ground, Jack looked back at the light. Time felt as if it had slowed. The light was no longer moving. It rippled and changed, and amongst the twinkling points an outline was emerging.

Jack saw black. A black dress. She wore a black dress. Her hair was black, dead black that leached any colour from her skin. And eyes, grey eyes that stared down at him with a bleak, horrible familiarity. He had seen those eyes before.

"Pitch," he murmured.

And then the black was everywhere and his strength was gone and he was falling.


End file.
